R. Allinson - The Long Road Home

“Mmm, yeah, sorry. Silly question,” Lucy said quietly.

“Never mind. You’re at Mum and Dad’s?”

“Yeah. I got here yesterday afternoon. I ran out of petrol at Little River and Dad had to come pick me up.”

“Oh. Lucky you’ve got Dad there…”

“Yeah. Although I haven’t seen much of him since we got home. Is Tom back yet? Mum said he was in Vancouver when the news broke?”

“No, he’s not back yet… long story. But he should be back soon. Then we’ll go to his uncle’s place. He’s got a bit of a farm a few hours away, we should be safe there to sit this out.”

“Yeah…” Lucy trailed off, and Claire wondered what her little sister was thinking. “Two months…” Lucy finally sighed out.

“Two months,” Claire echoed.

“Surely, I mean, two months is a long time, right? Not in the grand scheme of things, I know, but it’s not an insignificant amount of time. Surely they’ll be able to figure this out and stop it?”

“I don’t know, Luce. They have sixty days, give or take. Apparently they’ve been working on it for six months and haven’t been able to divert it. I hope they do come up with something though.”

“Yeah. Of course. I’m sure everyone does.” Lucy let out another sigh. “Things were just starting to look up for me, too.”

Claire closed her eyes tightly. “I’m sorry, Lucy.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault! Steve— I think I told you about him, didn’t I?”

“The motorcycle guy?”

“Yeah, him. He told me he loved me before I left Melbourne. When we were saying goodbye.”

“Oh, Lucy. Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. I said it back to him. I think I do. I think I could. And now I’ll probably never see him again! It’s not fair, Claire!”

“I know it’s not fair, Luce. But there’s not much we can do about it.”

Claire wondered if Bill had told them about his bunker plan yet. Lucy didn’t mention it.

She could hear Lucy taking a deep breath. “What are we going to do for the next two months?”

Claire bit her lip. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment.

“Just keep hoping they figure something out and some mystery person saves the world?”

Claire didn’t say anything.

“I feel so useless,” Lucy said quietly. “But I’ve been thinking. I don’t want to waste time being bitter or angry or anything. I mean, I am angry in an abstract way. This still hasn’t really sunk in,” Lucy paused.

“I know what you mean. It doesn’t feel real, does it?”

“Nope,” Lucy said. “If it turns out that there’s nothing to be done, then I don’t want my last moments on Earth wasted being bitter. I want to enjoy them.”

“That’s very wise of you,” Claire said. She was impressed. She hadn’t been sure how her little sister would cope with the impending demise of civilisation. Claire wouldn’t blame her for being an angry, screaming, swearing mess.

“I mean, yeah, it fucking sucks and I wish to high hell it wasn’t happening… but like you said, it is what it is, and there isn’t anything I can do about it.”

Now it was Claire’s turn to sigh. “You’re taking this better than I am.”

Lucy snorted. “I dunno, Claire. I’d probably be different if I had kids. I wish you guys were here with us.”

“Me too,” Claire closed her eyes again and imagined herself sitting around the old kitchen table with her sister and parents, Tom at her side and Noah and Tristan playing at their feet. She blinked. It wasn’t going to happen so she shouldn’t waste energy wishing for the impossible.

“I guess we just take each day as it comes, eh?” Lucy said after a few moments of silence.

“Yep. And prepare as best we can.”

“Sorry, Claire. I’ve got to go. Let us know when Tom gets home. Keep in touch. Love you.”

“Love you too, little sister. Give Mum and Dad a big hug from me. We can Skype soon, and you can see the boys.”

“That’d be good. Bye.”

They hung up and Claire sat staring at the picture of her sister and parents. Would she ever see them again in the flesh?

Claire got the boys ready and packed an overnight bag for them. She remembered to feed the cat before she left the house, and gave him a big scratch and cuddle.

“I’m so proud of how well Molly’s taking all of this,” Lisa said quietly, looking over at where her daughter was playing with Noah and Tristan.

“Yeah, she’s been amazing,” Claire murmured, sipping the wine. It was good. She decided to stay the night.

The two women made a fruit salad out of the perishable tropical fruits they’d bought the first night, to go with the decadent creamy pasta. Mangos, pineapple, melon, strawberries, nectarine. Claire savoured every bite, and winced at the pieces of fruit that ended up on the floor curtesy of Tristan. The little dog, Max, didn’t seem impressed with the fruit. He was much more interested in the dropped bits of pasta. Maybe they should have gotten a dog after all, Claire thought, watching Max lick up every last drop of sauce. It would have saved her a lot of cleaning over the past couple of years. Lancelot just wasn’t up to the task.

After she put the two boys to bed in the spare room, and told Noah a story about a sleeping dragon, Lisa poured her another glass of wine and they sat in front of the fireplace. It wasn’t a real fire, just a gas replica, but the flickering light still reminded Claire of a childhood of sitting in front of the wood heater, fighting with her sister, the cat and various dogs for the prime position. Not too close to be burned, not too far to be chilly. Although the cats always seemed to have a higher tolerance for the heat. More than a few times, they’d moved a comatose cat back, worried they were going to overheat, or catch fire. Claire blinked. Was it normal to think about other things? Should she be worrying about the asteroid twenty-four seven? She thought she might go mad if the asteroid was all she could think about.

“Do you ever wonder…” Lisa trailed off, staring into the flames.

“Wonder what?” Claire prompted.

“Maybe this is a good thing.”

Claire frowned, taken aback.

“A good thing? How could this possibly be a good thing?”

“Not for us, obviously. But for the planet. For nature.”

“But a lot of animals are going to die, too.”

“It’s like the planet’s being reset,” Lisa said almost dreamily. “There’s too many of us. We’re a plague. All our insatiable greed. It’s too much. Perhaps this will give nature a fighting chance. Bring us back down to a manageable level, if we survive at all. Let something else have a turn. The mammals inherited the Earth after the dinosaurs were wiped out. Whose turn is it now?”

“I don’t know. The insects? The fungi?” Claire said dryly.

Lisa chuckled. “The great civilisation of the fungi.”

“On that note,” Claire drained her glass. “I think I might go to bed.”

Claire stopped in her tracks. She could hear quiet sobbing. She paused and looked around. It seemed to be coming from behind the bookcase. Claire padded quietly over and peeked around the corner. Molly was curled up in a small ball, her head tucked into her knees, shoulders trembling.

“Oh, honey.” Claire swept down and gathered her niece into her arms. Molly tried to struggle free.

“I’m sorry, Auntie Claire.” She wiped her eyes and sniffed. “I thought everyone had gone to bed.”

“Don’t be sorry, Molly. You’re allowed to be upset.”

“I want to be strong for Mom,” Molly sniffed.

“Sweetie, your mother is an adult, and more importantly she’s your mother. It’s her job to be strong for you, not the other way around.”